Grace: I’m with Gertie. Can’t pick sides, which I will always pick Kresley BTW, until I know the facts. Sisters, who’s reaching out first? Covert Operation Fix It has commenced.
Francie: I’m here now. I was working on some figures for next week’s event and Kres walked in and didn’t say one word to me, just marched upstairs. But I could hear her sobbing all the way up. Sorry Cade, don’t mean to make you feel bad…oh wait. Yes, I do. You broke her, now we have to help you fix her. Grace and Sisters, come on over. I’m heading upstairs. You wait for my text Cade. You hear me? Do NOT come over right now. It would be a blood bath or river of tears.
Cade: Okay, Francie. I’m listening to you. I’m counting on you. All of you. You’re as important to me as Kresley is and I can’t lose you all either. I always wanted sisters. I can’t lose that, too. I can’t lose her. She’s everything. I can’t breathe without her. Please hurry.
Francie: Lordie Bessie…..you’re a good man Cade. Big Sexy is just really Big Softy.
Birdie: I could say something really bad right now about Big Softy, but I’m NOT, which tells you Cade how much I love ya!
Cade: Brat.
Kresley sat in her apartment, huddled into herself on her couch. Her knees drawn up to fit under her chin, her arms wrapped around her legs, shoulders hunched in emotional upheaval. She lost it. Her temper and possibly her boyfriend. Kresley was so mad with herself for letting her words spew out like that. She usually held that much emotion inside and waited before reacting, but something about today changed things. She felt raw, like every nerve was exposed and being aggravated over and over again. She knew within five minutes of leaving Cade that she shouldn’t have. She should have stayed, sat down and just waited for both of them to calm down and then tried to talk it out with him. What was she doing? Sabotaging the best relationship she has ever had in her life because he had vomited out frustrated words when he was angry and fearful. And he was fearful for her! Kresley knew deep down that everything Cade said was let out from a place of fear for her safety. If the roles were reversed and Cade had been the one to scare her to death for some reason, Kresley would have vented as well. She was sure of that.
So, what was she doing here, curled up on her couch and not with her boyfriend? Oh yeah, that’s right. Because she lost her cool, showed her ass, and stormed away like a cry baby. And possibly ruined any chance of having happily ever after with the man of her dreams. That thought brought fresh tears to Kresley’s eyes and she began crying in earnest. She was crying so hard that she didn’t hear the alarm disengaged and her door being opened. But all of a sudden Kresley felt many female hands around her, hugging her, stroking her hair and voices whispering words of comfort and assurance. Sisters. When needed, they were always there. Kresley looked up around her. “Hey guys. I messed up. Big time. Help me fix it?” She found it strange when all of them looked at each other and began laughing. Well damn, that wasn’t necessary!
Francie took ahold of Kresley’s face and made her look at her straight on. “We know Kres. We know what happened. We don’t know word for word that was said. We don’t know why y’all were arguing, but we know it was a blow up. And you have a man across town who is in agony. He’s sitting at his house, thinking that it’s over, that he totally screwed up so bad that you wouldn’t want him anymore. And yes, I was able to gather all of that from the group text that we had earlier with Big Sexy.”
“Cade text you? All of you? Even Birdie?”, Kresley asked incredulously.
“Hey, I’ll have you know that I can be helpful when I need to be. I’m not a bitch or weird all of the time. Just some times. When it’s warranted. Or fun”, Birdie stated, snacking on a Snickers candy bar.
“Tell us what happened, sweetie. Bring us up to the fight y’all just had and then we can help you and Cade better”, Gertie stated quietly. Kresley hesitated, not wanting to bring up anything hurtful for Gertie. But then she decided that Gert was much stronger than they gave her credit for. Kresley took a deep breath and spoke.
She slowly began to tell them what had gone on today. She talked about the vendor in Atlanta, the phone conversation on the way home, then what she found at Fiona’s. Kresley paused at that, letting it soak in with her sisters and Grace that Fiona was murdered. Their looks of disbelief and fear said it all. Gertie remained quiet, but her tight grip on Kresley’s hand made a silent, but strong statement. Then she went on to Cade being angry and seeming to hold it in on the drive home, then him gunning for her, emotionally. She ended with her storming out after spewing hot lava at him and winding up back here. “And now I’m scared to death that I’ve ruined everything. I haven’t, have I? Please tell me I haven’t! It scares me to death to say this and please don’t say anything smart ass or feminist about it, but I honestly don’t think I can live without him. If he isn’t here, then I’m not sure I want to be. It’s that kind of love that scares a woman shitless. Because it tosses out our control over our emotions. They become dependent on another human being for, well, everything. Am I crazy?”
Grace reached out and
